John Perreault

(1937 - 2015)

American

John Perreault (pronounced per-ALT[1]) was born in Manhattan, New York City, and raised in Belmar, New Jersey. He briefly attended Montclair State University before enrolling at the New School for Social Research, where he studied poetry under noted New York School poet Kenneth Koch. Perreault was multitalented and what one would call an artistic jack of all trades. Besides publishing two books of poetry in 1969 and 1974 respectively, he was an accomplished art critic and writer, a visual artist, and curator. As chief art critic at The Village Voice and the SoHo Weekly News from 1975 to 1982, Perreault often focused on and supported feminist art, queer art, craft, and pattern and decoration—genres at the time that were highly dismissed by major art world figures. On sculptor Louise Nevelson, whose work is in the Akron Art Museum’s permanent collection, Perreault once said “She is living proof that no group of pedants can ever sew up art for long and that no system of rules, in which rules are mandates rather than rules of thumb, can explain away or hold down art to formulae, simplified art history, or limited taste.”[2] And about Andy Warhol’s paintings that were composed from the artist urinating on copper-coated canvases, Perreault noted “Shower queens will rejoice and others will be simultaneously attracted and repulsed. What could be better?”[3]Perreault’s impressive knowledge of art and art history fed his criticism and was broadened by his close friendships with artists that included Scott Burton, Les Levine, Alice Neel, and Sylvia Sleigh—both Neel and Sleigh painted his portrait. After the Soho Weekly News went out of business in 1982, Perreault completed an impressive curatorial career. He served as chief curator at the Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York, the director and curator of the New House Center for Contemporary Art, New York, and senior curator at the American Craft Museum (now the Museum of Arts and Design) from 1990 to 1993.

 

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/09/arts/john-perreault-critic-artist-and-poet-dies-at-78.html; accessed March 4, 2022.

[2] https://www.villagevoice.com/2015/09/09/john-perreault-artist-critic-and-author-1937-2015/; accessed March 4, 2022.

[3] https://www.villagevoice.com/2017/07/11/an-element-of-chance-a-celebration-of-john-perreault/; accessed March 4, 2022.

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